For just £1.30 a person each year the UK could help end Aids by 2030, new analysis finds
Protecting what remains of the UK’s funding for the global HIV response to end the decades-long deadly epidemic would cost less than £1.30 per year per UK adult, according to a new analysis by . Independent shows.
The figure is based on the government meeting its existing commitments to three key funds: the UN Aid Agency (UNAIDS), the medicines access agency Unitaid, and the Robert Carr Fund, which ensures the voices of marginalized people most affected by HIV are included.
To maintain current funding levels the government will need to commit around £200 million over three years, or £67 million a year. Shared among 55 million adults in the UK, it could help end new HIV infections globally; This is something the prime minister has committed to doing in the UK by 2030.
The government is preparing to approve funding decisions for these three bodies by the end of January.
It has already announced it will make its biggest contribution to the global HIV response, with a cut of £150 million.
Conservative MP David Mundell, co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on HIV/Aids, said: “It’s a modest sum but every pound still counts for people struggling. But I think what really matters is what the alternative cost is?”
“The alternative cost of failing to achieve zero transmission is the emergence of new strains of HIV, which will come into the UK and put additional pressure on our NHS.”
He added that the UK and other “like-minded countries” should step up and target their funding to gaps left by US cuts to global HIV programs, including services for LGBT+ and other marginalized communities that the US “doesn’t want to fund”.
Labor MP and public health doctor Beccy Cooper, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on global health and security, added: “This analysis is a stark reminder that some of the highest value public spending we can make is on global health. “Delivering these HIV commitments will have an impact far beyond their modest cost and will help sustain the momentum to end AIDS by 2030.
“As a public health expert, I also see the wider benefit of this. Targeted HIV investment strengthens health systems, allowing us to respond to other health challenges such as infectious disease outbreaks, support resilient communities and ultimately keep people across the UK safer,” Dr Cooper said.
In an open letter published earlier this month, Independent More than 30 leading charities, along with advocates and MPs, called on the prime minister to protect the remainder of the UK’s funding for the global HIV response.
In 2024, a global target to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 was on the horizon, but this year’s drastic cuts to development aid spending by many rich countries, including the UK, have put that progress at risk.
If previous levels of funding for HIV prevention worldwide are not maintained, there will be more than four million additional deaths and infections by 2030, according to the UN’s latest estimates.
The UK will reduce its total foreign aid spending by 40 percent by 2029 in order to transfer more resources to defence. Devastating blackouts in the US, among others, have left health systems around the world in shambles and HIV prevention services to collapse. Approximately 2.5 million people using pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in 2024 lost access to the drug this year due to donor disruptions.
Mike Podmore, chief executive of STOPAIDS, a network of UK institutions working on the global response to HIV/AIDS, said securing these three key funds represented “an incredible opportunity for the UK government to commit to and invest in hope and the real possibility of ending AIDS within five years”.
“If the UK and other governments around the world choose to make the political and financial commitment required.
“This is a small price to pay to keep the world and the UK safe by preventing a resurgence of the AIDS epidemic and ensuring we are on track to end it once and for all.”
This article was produced as part of The Independent. Rethinking Global Aid project
